Displaying items by tag: Electricity
Storing energy at scale at cement plants
27 September 2023Taiwan Cement has just commissioned a 107MWh energy storage project at its Yingde plant in Guangdong province, China. Subsidiary NHOA Energy worked on the installation and has been promoting it this week. The battery storage works in conjunction with a 42MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit, a 8MWp solar photovoltaic unit and a proprietary energy management system. It is expected to store about 46,000MWh/yr of electricity and save just under US$3m/yr in electricity costs.
NHOA Energy, formerly known as Engie EPS before Taiwan Cement bought a majority stake in it, claims it is one of the largest industrial microgrids in the world. We can’t verify this for sure, but it is definitely large. For comparison, the 750MW Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California often gets cited as the largest such facility in the world. This is run by a power company, as are many other large battery energy storage systems. In its annual report for 2022 Taiwan Cement said it was planning to using NHOA’s technology to build seven other large-scale energy storage projects at sites in Taiwan including its integrated Suao, Ho-Ping and Hualien cement plants.
The aim here appears to be supplying renewable electricity to the national grid in Taiwan. Taiwan Cement is diversifying away from cement production, with an aim to derive over 50% of its revenues from other activities besides cement by 2025. In 2022 cement and concrete represented 68% of its sales, while its electricity and energy division, including power supply and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, represented 29%. The company is also not using its own batteries at the Yingde plant. Instead it is using lithium iron phosphate batteries supplied by Ningde Times. This is worth noting, as the cement producer’s batteries are used in vehicles.
Global Cement regularly reports news stories on cement plants that are building photovoltaic solar power arrays. However, so far at least, energy storage projects at scale have been rarer. One earlier example of an energy storage system loosely associated with a cement plant includes the now decommissioned Tehachapi Energy Storage Project that was situated next to the Tehachapi cement plant in California. That project tested using lithium ion batteries to improve grid performance and integrate intermittent generation from nearby wind farms. It is also worth noting that Sumitomo Osaka Cement’s sister company Sumitomo Electric is one of the world’s larger manufacturers of flow batteries, although no installation at a cement plant appears to have happened yet. In simple terms, flow batteries are an alternative to lithium ion batteries that don’t store as much energy but last longer.
More recently, Lucky Cement in Pakistan started commercial operation of a 34MW solar power plant with a 5.59MWh energy storage unit at its Pezu plant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in late 2022. Reon Energy provided the equipment including a lithium-ion based battery approach to the storage. Then, in March 2023, Holcim US said that it was working with TotalEnergies to build solar power capacity and a battery energy storage unit at the Florence cement plant in Colorado. TotalEnergies will install, maintain and operate a 33MW DC ground-mounted solar array and a 38.5MWh battery energy storage system at the site. Operation of the renewable energy system is expected to start in 2025.
Away from electrical batteries, the other approach to energy storage at cement plants that has received attention recently from several quite different companies has been thermal batteries. The two prominent groups using them at different scales are Rondo Energy and Synhelion. The former company has developed its Heat Battery technology, which uses refractory bricks to absorb intermittent renewable energy and then supply the energy back as a steady stream of hot gas for use in a cement plant mill, dryer, calciner or kiln. Both Siam Cement Group (SCG) and Titan Cement have invested in Rondo Energy. In July 2023 SCG and Rondo Energy said that they were planning to expand the production capacity of a heat battery storage unit at a SCG plant to 90GWh/yr. Synhelion, meanwhile, has been working with Cemex on using concentrated solar power to manufacture clinker. It achieved this on an ‘industrially viable scale’ in August 2023. It has since been reported that the companies are working on building a small scale industrial plant at Móstoles near Madrid by 2026. Crucially for this discussion though, the process also uses a thermal energy storage unit filled with ceramic refractory material to allow thermal energy to be released at night, and thus ensure continuous operation.
The examples above demonstrate that some cement companies are actively testing out storing energy at scale. Whilst this will not solve the cement sector’s process emissions, it does potentially start to make using renewable energy sources more reliable and reduce the variable costs of renewable power. Whether it catches on remains to be seen. Most of these kinds of projects have been run by power companies and that is where it may stay. It is instructive to note that Reon Energy was the only company to state that its battery-based energy storage system has a life-span of 8 - 12 years. Our current vision of a net-zero future points to high electrical usage but it may be shaped by how good the batteries are… from our phones to our cars to our cement plants.
For more information on Rondo Energy read the January 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine
Honduras: Cementos Argos Honduras has commissioned a 1.6GWh/yr solar power plant at its Choloma grinding plant in Río Blanquito. Grupo Argos’ energy subsidiary Celsia built the plant, which consists of 2160 photovoltaic modules. The La República newspaper has reported that the installation cost US$1.2m. It will supply 25% of the Choloma grinding plant’s energy consumption, and reduce its total CO2 emissions by 23%.
Cementos Argos Honduras CEO Luis Eduardo Tovar said "This partnership marks a significant milestone in our efforts to address climate change and revitalise our ecosystems, while generating significant impact in communities with new employment and investment opportunities.”
Capsol Technologies wins two further carbon capture contracts in Europe
19 September 2023Europe: Norway-based Capsol Technologies says that it has signed contracts for two new feasibility studies for carbon capture installations at ‘large cement plants’ in the EU. If successful, the plants will proceed to the installation of Capsol Technologies’ CapsolEoP carbon capture systems. Nordic Daily News has reported that the technology reduces the energy consumption of carbon capture by 50%, and lowers its costs by 25%, according to the supplier.
The new contracts bring Capsol Technologies’ number of cement industry carbon capture contracts to four, and its total contracts to nine, with a potential CO2 capture capacity of 10Mt/yr.
CEO Jan Kielland said "We are pleased that our solution is gaining attention, as demonstrated by an increasing number of incoming requests for sales engineering and engineering studies, and look forward to being a major contributor in the path to net zero for cement.”
India: Ratings agency ICRA says that the cement industry in India will reach a renewable energy reliance of 40% across its operations in the 2025 financial year. The Hitavada newspaper has reported that this will involve the construction of 537MW-worth of new renewable power capacity. During the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023, producers used 35% renewable energy. ICRA said that they can expect to make costs savings of US$240m/yr from 2025 through the scale-up of renewables, including solar, wind and waste heat recovery. This would correspond to a 15 – 18% reduction of estimated energy costs for the 2025 financial year.
Over the same two-year period, ICRA forecast blended cements to rise to 81% of cement sales in the 2025 financial year, from 78% in the 2023 financial year.
France Ciment estimates cost of national cement industry decarbonisation at Euro3.5bn
30 August 2023France: The French cement sector association, France Ciment, has called on the government to make ‘heavy investments’ in the industry amid its on-going transition to net zero CO2 cement production. It estimated the total cost of its transition, which will include carbon capture, at Euro3.5bn,according to Les Echos newspaper. The association said that producers currently benefit from the government’s partial price cap on electricity for industrial plants. It sought clarity as to whether the cap will remain in force beyond its scheduled limit in 2025. Lafarge France said that capped prices covered 50 – 60% of its electricity consumption in 2022.
India: Solar power plant developer Oriana Power has received a US$4.2m order to supply a solar power plant to a cement producer in Rajasthan. The supplier says that it will build a 7MW ground-mounted array at the site of cement plant belonging to the producer. The engineering, procurement and construction will take until the end of January 2024.
Rondo Energy raises US$60m from investors
18 August 2023US: Heat Battery developer Rondo Energy has concluded a financing round with US$60m raised in investments, Renewables Now News has reported. Investors included Siam Cement Group and Titan Cement Group, as well as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, the Climate Innovation Fund, Rio Tinto, SABIC, Aramco Ventures, SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust and John Doerr. Rondo Energy’s Heat Battery is a means of connecting cement plants and other industrial facilities to a constant supply of electricity ultimately derived from renewable energy sources.
CEO John O'Donnell said “Our Strategic Investor Advisory Board will help Rondo focus on the simplest, fastest ways to power their operations with low-cost clean energy and shape our priorities for ongoing research and development.”
Boral’s revenues rise in 2023 financial year
11 August 2023Australia: Boral’s sales were US$2.28bn in the 2023 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2023. This corresponds to a 38% year-on-year rise from the previous first half. The group’s net profit dropped by 1.3% to US$96.6m. It noted a rise in its costs of energy, labour and transport, which it expects to continue up to the end of June 2024, and possibly on throughout the second half of 2024.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has reported that Australian residential construction activity dropped by 7.7% month-on-month in June 2023. Boral CEO Vik Bansal said that the company expects residential, commercial and civil construction to return to growth in the 2024 financial year.
France: Vicat's consolidated sales were Euro1.91bn in the first half of 2023, up by 9% year-on-year from Euro1.76bn in the first half of 2022. The group's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 17% to Euro314m from Euro269m. Vicat said that it recorded generally 'resilient' sales volumes and price rises across most of its markets. Volumes dropped in France and Switzerland. During the half, Vicat's specific CO2 emissions per tonne of cement fell by 3.6% year-on-year to 571kg/t from 591kg/t.
Chair and chief executive officer Guy Sidos said "The group has not yet returned to its pre-crisis margins rates. I’d like to thank all our teams for their unwavering commitment enabling us to reach our industrial, financial and climate targets." He added that Vicat is on track to achieve its CO2 emission target of 497kg/t of cement by 2030.
Regarding its outlook for the current 2023 full year, Vicat said "The group is targeting further significant sales growth, with its markets overall expected to display resilience and reflect the full benefit of the price hikes in selling prices implemented in 2022 and the fresh increases introduced in 2023." It added "The performance in 2023 will reap the benefit of the full impact of the new kiln at the Ragland plant in the US, the elimination of the non-recurring costs incurred in 2022 and the stabilisation in energy costs."
Fire at Buzzi Unicem USA's Stockertown cement plant
14 July 2023US: A fire broke out in a building at Buzzi subsidiary Buzzi Unicem USA's Stockertown cement plant on the evening of 13 July 2023. Local fire crews arrived at the plant in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, at 19:18. The Express-Times newspaper has reported that the fire affected an electrical room, and that parties present at the scene requested that power to at least a portion of the facility be cut.